ISLAMABAD: The oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) companies have drilled around 217 wells during a 40-month period, producing an additional 32,496,029 barrels of oil and 1,436,546 million cubic feet (mmcf) gas since 2018-19.
According to details, the E&P companies, operating in different parts of the country, have drilled around 217 wells including 87 exploratory and 130 appraisals and development during the last three years.
As a result of the exploration and development activities, the companies produced an additional 32,496,029 barrels of oil and 1,436,546 MMCF gas in 2018-19; around 28,086,649 barrels of oil and 1,316,635 MMCF gas in 2019-20; as many as 27,568,461 barrels of oil and 1,279,243 MMCF gas in 2020-21 and 9,295,184 barrels of oil and 415,366 MMCF gas in first four months of the current fiscal year.
In 2021-22, the E&P companies would produce around 29 million barrels of crude oil and 1.47 trillion cubic feet (TCF) gas and 917,731 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) under the targets given by the government to meet the country’s energy needs.
In 2020-21, the companies had produced around 27 MBL of crude oil, 1.27 TCF of gas and 764,775 tons LPG during the last year against the targets of 30 MBL oil, 1.43 TCF gas and 753,051 LPG.
The country had been divided into four exploration licensing zones, consisting of West Balochistan-Pishin-Potowar Basins, Kirthar, East Balochistan-Punjab platform-Suleman Basins, Lower Indus Basins and Indus & Makran Basins. The country’s total existing sedimentary area is around 827,268 square kilometers (KM2), out of which 320, 741-km or 39 percent of the area is under exploration.
